Winner of the Golden Spatula 2012
Joey Muns
With his thesis entitled ‘Chemical modification of butyrylcholinesterase with reactivating tethers: a pseudo-catalytic nerve gas bioscavenger’, Joey Muns won the ‘gold’ prize at the KNCV conference ‘Chemistry of Life’. His graduation project, carried out at TNO for Leiden University of Applied Sciences, earned him the Golden Spatula pin and a prize of €1,000.
From the jury report:
..."During his internship at TNO Rijswijk in collaboration with partners in France and Germany, Joey was involved in research into a method to provide protection before poisoning with nerve agents. Here, butylcholinesterase, an enzyme that occurs in the body with no obvious function, is used as a bioscavenger. Joey's mission was to improve this method and make it more efficient. The initial results are very encouraging.
In his report, Joey showed that he has fully mastered the theoretical background. He wrote an extensive report, which is enjoyable to read. Moreover, he proved to be a good experimenter, who did not despair when faced with setbacks. Therefore, Joey was awarded the KNCV ‘Gouden Spatel’ 2012."
The other two prizes were awarded to:
Sebastiaan van Kessel - Hanze University of Applied Sciences
‘The binding of SepF, and other proteins to the C-terminus of Bacillus subtilis FtsZ’
Esther Roeven - Fontys University of Applied Sciences
'Modification of Silicon Nitride Surfaces for Biosensor Applications'
